Overview: Based on the 2014 Norwegian film 'In Order of Disappearance,' Summit Entertainment and Lionsgate Films' 'Cold Pursuit' is the story of a grieving snowplow driver who seeks out revenge against the drug dealers who killed his son.

4K Ultra HD Verdict: Lionsgate continues to expand their 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray catalog offerings this May with the release of this quite stunning, and brilliantly off-center black comedy thriller 'Cold Pursuit' on new 4K home video format on May 14th, 2019.

For my money, this 'Cold Pursuit: 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray + Digital' combo pack's sharpness takes a fairly large step forward from others in their 4K Ultra HD catalog and even comes with HDR (High Dynamic Range) for the complete 4K Ultra HD experience, of course.

So, what we have is 'Cold Pursuit' presented to us as a two-disc combo pack with a sheet for a Digital HD Copy. Other stand out points you should know are: Codec: MPEG-4 AVC, Resolution: 1080p, and Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1.

Featuring Dolby Vision and HDR10 for brighter, deeper, and way more lifelike colors, as with most all 4K UHD's, everything that we watch features these qualities - but somehow, this film gloriously shines within them all.

Noticeably crisper with the overall clarity receiving an obvious boost here on this release, what's more is that it's enjoyably noticeable. For as well as some new nuances to the somewhat drab palette courtesy of Dolby Vision we also get to witness sudden bright pops of color; like the delicious hues and nuances of all the frantic "white out" outdoor running and chase scenes involving the many action sequences.

Indeed, the picture enjoys the fruits of the added resolution in terms of bringing out the aforementioned extremely fine facial and some of the yellow graded material (notably some scenes where Neeson is running after his "prey" and his face (as it is cold, after all) is puffed and red) now have a kind of honeyed amber appearance. Which is interesting, and at least a little different from the 1080p Blu-ray accounting.

As for the audio, well we have: English: Dolby Atmos, English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit), and Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1.

Overall, this is a very strong 4K HDR Blu-ray presentation, and, for the most part, the audio track remains fairly similar to its DTS-HD counterpart; with much of the action occupying the surrounds with outstanding directionality and placement where effects flawlessly pan between the sides and rears.

Phew! OK, so, as for the movie itself. Well, snow plower Nelson Cox (Neeson) has just been awarded citizen of the year while enjoying his happy life, happy wife, and happy son.

But then his son is found dead of a heroin overdose. Despite Nelson's pleas that his son wasn't a drug user, the police find no evidence of foul play and rule it a suicide.

Still, Nelson feels that something fishy is going on and discovers from a friend that his son was the target of a mafia hit. Once he figures out who it was, be becomes a vigilante and kills off several people to get to the leader.

Mafia head "Viking" (Tom Bateman) becomes angry (and this is a hotheaded villain) and mistakes the killer coming from another Native-American mafia within the same town. They eventually instigate conflict and a mafia war, while Nelson continues to axe off more people.

It eventually leads him to a point where he kidnaps Viking's son in order to draw him out...and the gang...and the other gang...and the local police as a war of confused sides come together just to figure out whose angry at who.

I'll say right away that while this has the plot of a standard thriller that seems tailor made for Liam Neeson; that because it is and is proud of it. In fact, this is more of a parody of those Liam Neeson movies that come out around this time.

'Cold Pursuit' takes a lot of those elements, like the tough leading man with a combat background, an eccentric villain, a family member he's avenging, and even the use of a transport machine as a plot device (in this case, a snowplow), and put it into a movie that made me laugh at the dark elements that are typically easier to write in dramas.

What helps 'Cold Pursuit' are a couple of things, like its overall tone, which seems like a mix of Coen brothers cinematography and Tarantino-style editing and storytelling. This brings up a lot of side characters that are usually sidelined in a lot of Liam Neeson movies.

The main villain is delightfully over-the-top as an angry, yelling hothead, the Native Americans play off as wise while seemingly insane, and even some of the mafia goons get their little personality quirks that make them more then just throw away bad guys. There isn't much to Liam Neeson himself, who is basically the straight man to all the chaos.

I think that Liam Neeson would have to know at this point that his characters have gone through the same scenario so many times, that playing it up as a parody would only make sense from this point.

'Cold Pursuit' is an example of how that can take up that idea and make a parody without it becoming too silly. This is a dark comedy and because of that, I can see this as being an acquired taste.

Some may want an action with a more engaging story and some may want a comedy with more jokes. I say this is a happy marriage that isn't great, but rather simply remains a fun ride.

So, in summary,other then those wanting a more unconventional comedy I found 'Cold Pursuit' and Liam Neeson as a fun, vibrant and darkly comedic duo that make this movie exactly what it sets out to be.

Anyway, that's that, for the most part, so now let's concentrate on a couple of the special features that are included.

The first I'll talk about is the Interview with Actor Liam Neeson, which as much as it only "reveals" what we already know about his character and the film in general, he does - in that low-caliber, gravel tone of his - honestly speak as if he LOVES his amateur killer character and what he gets up to re: eradicating the local criminality, as he puts it.

Neeson's own profound words about all of us having the "primitive need for avenging a wrong" within us all is a wee bit tough to hear now, given what he revealed on morning TV a couple of months back, but as an admirer of the original film that this is based on, Neeson also reveals his love for that one along with how happy he was they got the same director to direct 'Cold Pursuit.'

The other one I'll talk about is a further revealing gem entitled Welcome to Kehoe: Behind the Scenes on Cold Pursuit” where we get to see wonderful (especially if you loved the film like myself) How'd they do that? snippets of filming.

Much like when a truck was meant to have "run over him," but here we see it was only gently backed up over him before driving off as if it had driven over him!

Match that up with some snow and ice fight scenes, where nothing is quite what it seems cinematography wise, and yes, this is a first rate special feature, for sure.

This is a Widescreen Presentation (2.39:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs via 1080p and comes with the Special Features of:

Deleted Scenes
Interview with Actor Liam Neeson
Interview with Director Hans Petter Moland
“Welcome to Kehoe: Behind the Scenes on Cold Pursuit” Featurette

The 'Cold Pursuit: 4K Ultra HD Combo Pack' (+ Blu-ray Combo Pack and DVD) will be released May 14th, 2019 and will be available for the suggested retail price of $42.99, $39.99, and $29.95, respectively.

Official Trailer

Official Website